The Science of Superheroes by Lois Gresh and Robert Weinberg, Wiley, ÂŁ14.99/$29.95, ISBN 0471024600 Reviewed by Simon Locke
SUPERHEROES are creatures of science. Yet many superheroes are rooted in science fiction, with its long tradition of using science speculatively to extrapolate from what is known. So where does science stop and fantasy begin? What superpowers might, according to ârealâ science, be possible? Superhero comics have long played the game of inventing âscientificâ justifications for powers â bending science to comicsâ needs. So should superheroes follow the rules of science, or vice versa?
To science fiction writers Lois Gresh and Robert Weinberg, the answer is clear. They declare the rules of physics to be âThe Lawâ, and inviolable. He outline characters and their superpowers, locating them in the history of superhero comics, then discusses whether their powers obey The Law. Unsurprisingly, most donât. The Incredible Hulk could not become a green-skinned, superpowered giant because gamma radiation destroys organic material.
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This approach will please anyone who is irked by scientific inaccuracies in popular texts. And the book should go down well with the comicsâ teenage readers: the writing is in an accessible style and the authors skilfully manage the difficult gear-shift between describing the heroes and discussing the science. The chapter structure produces a somewhat disjointed history of these comics, but history is not the aim. The focus is mainly pre-1970s, as more recent heroes owe less to science.
Arguably, insistence on The Law misses something important about science â its openness to debate, even unto challenging The Law itself. Gresh and Weinberg mention debates, but push them to conclusions, turning speculative openness into judgements.
While these may accord with this yearâs scientific wisdom, popular science obeys a different set of âlawsâ â and insistence on The Law obscures these too. The Hulk is not about radiation biology so much as the moral authority of Big Science. It is these social âlawsâ that need to be recognised if we are to understand how gamma rays can turn a man green.
